Photo By Sgt. Patrick Lair | UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters return to Contingency Operating Base Speicher, near...... read more read more
Subscribe
By Sgt. Patrick Lair
115th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
TIKRIT, Iraq - Shortly after breakfast on a Saturday morning at Contingency Operating Base Speicher, members of Charley Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Combat Aviation Brigade, spread out across their airfield to pick up rocks and debris. Then a call comes over the radio.
"Medevac! Medevac! Medevac!"
Two flight crews hurry to grab their gear before racing onto the airfield and boarding their helicopters. Within minutes the UH-60 Blackhawks are airborne and enroute to someone in northern Iraq who needs medical attention.
Charley Company is an air ambulance unit tasked with transporting injured people from the field to the hospital and in between hospitals for Multi-National Division-North.
"We just get the call and we go," said 1st Lt. Geoffrey Hulsey, medevac team leader. "We head out just as fast as we can."
On this particular day, the soldiers dropped into a remote point in the desert to take an Iraqi army soldier with stomach pains into a hospital. Then they transported three patients at the COB Speicher hospital to the one at Logistical Support Area Anaconda. A short time later they field another request.
"We take everyone. We take U.S. military, coalition forces, local nationals, Iraqi army, Iraqi police," Hulsey said. "When they call you they need you and we're there to help them out."
Since beginning their deployment in September 2007, Charley Company Soldiers have flown almost daily missions in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The unit, based out of Ft. Riley, Kan., is currently serving on its fourth deployment since 2003.
Spc. James Tillery, a crew chief, is on his third deployment with the unit. He served with the 1st CAB at Balad in OIF II and then at al Asad in western Iraq with the U.S. Marine Corps.
As crew chief his job is to fly along on the missions to deal with mechanical problems that might arise.
"We pretty much fix anything that goes wrong except for major maintenance," he said. "I like fixing them up and flying out with the guys."
Another essential component of the crew is the flight medic.
Spc. Stacey Dill has been a medic for four years. One of the challenges of her job, she said, is working in the confined area of the helicopter. However, she likes what she does.
One memorable mission for her was the night she was flying to Balad in conditions with a visibility of one and a half miles. All of a sudden, the helicopter was spotlighted and then shot at from the ground.
"It happened really fast and it was a surprise," she said with a smile. "But now I can say I've been shot at."
While she's accompanied many medical transports, Dill said she's still waiting to do her first POI, which is short for point of injury. POIs are instances when the helicopters must pick up an injured person directly from the field, as opposed to a hospital.
These missions are the result of 9-line medevac requests, which most deployed Soldiers have been taught to send up in case of a medical emergency.
Sgt. Amanda Smith, operations non-commissioned officer-in-charge at Charley Co., is the one who fields those calls.
"They'll tell us how many people they have; U.S. military, DOD civilian, Iraqi army," she said, sitting before a panel of radios and phone lines. "Then we have 15 minutes to get out for urgent patients."
She said the air ambulance service is essential to helping other Soldiers complete their missions.
"If we don't do our job right, then they can't do their jobs right," she said.
On the right shoulders of their flight suits, Charley Company Soldiers wear a patch which along with their logo has the words "Dust Off" stitched in bold letters.
The "Dust Off" creed is also posted at the front door of their TOC. The creed defines the slogan in a number of ways, finishing with four lines that speak volumes:
" ... Dust Off is always being ready.
Dust Off is never saying no.
Dust Off is 82 patients in 24 hours.
Dust Off is 4,000 patients in 6 months."
| Date Taken: | 04.05.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 04.05.2008 17:31 |
| Story ID: | 18113 |
| Location: | TIKRIT, IQ |
| Web Views: | 272 |
| Downloads: | 199 |
This work, Medical evacuation teams in Iraq are waiting for the call, by SGT Patrick Lair, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
LEAVE A COMMENT